Bad joints

[Flatcoatluver]

I think zoey is hurting her joints now when she is jumping in agility, so i lowered the jumps so agility is still fun , but i was wondering if there is any pills for her to take so her joints will feel better

I asked the vet and he says that he has no time untill jan. to look at her!

[Jessika]

That's pretty rude of your vet.... if I were you, I would call another vet in the area just to ask them what their thoughts would be.

YES they have arthritis medicine for dogs. I know they have some at PetCo and I can almost guarantee they'd have some at Petsmart too. They also have dietary supplements you can give your pups to help ease or prevent the full blown effects of arthritis.

Also you MAY be able to give your pup aspirin, but I don't recommend doing so until you call your vet (if he has the time for you, that is) to see if that is appropriate for your pup and what the correct dosage would be.

Hope I've helped, even if only a little!

[Flatcoatluver]

my dog is two and it just her front legs that hurt and it's from jumping because she loves agility and she hit thosae jumps hard. giving her arthritus medicine may help but if dosn't have arthritus, so i dunno what to give her. is there anybody out there that does agiliy and maybe has hered of special medicine for her?

thanks for yuor help jessika

[Jessika]

Well in that case there are dietary supplements you can give her that will help! Ask other parents of agility dogs who you do agility with and see what supplements they may give their pups! I know with agility its hard on the joints so they may have some tips for you as well.

[Flatcoatluver]

i talked to one lady and she said something that has glucose in it, does anybody know any pill that might have glucose

[pnance]

Our vet put Bear, who has had bad joint/arthritis since we got him at 5 yrs on a suppliment of glucosomine/chondroitin. We use the human variety, she gave me 3 brands that were good, I don't off the top of my head remember the other 2, but he gets the Kirkland brand (Costco). I don't have the bottle in front of me but I think it says glucosomine/chondroitin 500/400 mg. He gets 1 pill twice a day. Your vet should be able to give you the correct dosage for your dogs weight over the phone. I've started to put Hunter on this as well since he's starting on agility, I figured it can't hurt.

[Flatcoatluver]

oh hey thanks so much!!! Is it helping you dog with arthritus ( i mean are you seeing a big improvemet)

[pnance]

It helped Bear a lot. When we first got him he could barely get up, let along walk any distance, or play with the other dogs his back legs were so bad and he was only 5. It's not an immediate pain relief like rimadyl or some of the others, more of a maintenance. We noticed a difference gradually over a couple of months. He'll turn 9 in October, and though he'll never be able to just jump up like the rest of the dogs, he can now walk over 3 miles, runs and plays with the rest of our dogs, can climb stairs, and goes up and down our fairly steep backyard. Hunter doesn't really have a problem, I mainly started him on it since I was putting him in agility and I know that can be hard on the joints, I figured it couldn't hurt him and may prevent future problems.

[Flatcoatluver]

wow what a sussesful story congrats

[felinefuture]

My experience with arthritis, is that if the problem is not connected to an old injury, the arthritis can be dramatically reduced, or disappear if you feed a raw meat diet. We have seen this happen innumerable times!

Gayle

[Flatcoatluver]

ok she doesn't have arthrtis but are you saying since she has bad joints now i should maybe take care of arthritis now before it ever get really bad???

[Crikit]

You might want to consider getting her x-rayed. If her legs are bothering her at 2 from jumping then it might be something that needs further investigation. A 2 year old dog if they are sound of structure and at a proper weight should not be having leg problems from jumping.

Also depending on her height at the whithers she should only be jumping from 20-30 (that depends on what organization) dogs that are 18"-21" should only have to jump 20-22" which considering that she's 2 she should only just be starting at...after all dogs bones aren't fully developed until they are 18 months and shouldn't be jumping their full height until then. Jumping a dog at their full height before that age could really cause some problems.

[Flatcoatluver]

yeah thanks, my old agility club was jumping her too high when she was only 9 weeks old, after she went into sergery, we left that agility club and started a new one, she ended up being also diganosed with a puuppy disease i don't remerber what it was but it was from her jumps, she is no jumping inches 20 because that is what she is registed in show, we already went threw the process and she was cleared by our vet. But whenever she jumps i am still worried she is hurting her joints, so i was just curious if there was pills out there to help her.

[kirstymacaulay]

hi my dog has bad joints and we give her concentrated mini glucosamine
chondroitin and msn for dogs
we get them from a medicine place called woods
good luck

[jesse_3]

Well, Jesse's back leg has been giving her problems lately, so we are checkiing out the glucosomine/chondroitin and I have also looked at this: http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/Only_N...p/999016.1.htm

Good luck!-
Steph, Jesse, and Splinter